Supernatural S04E15 - Death Takes A Holiday (2009)

Review

In Greybull Wyoming no one has died for a week and Bobby has apparently put the Bros on the scent of what could be a weird case. Finding no apparent reason for the lack of deaths, including a dude who was shot in the heart, Sam decides they need to go for a spirit walk and ask young Col Griffith, the last person to die in the town, if he saw anything suspicious. Pamela Barnes reluctantly agrees to help out, sending the Winchester spirits over to the other side. They meet Col who wasn't taken on by Reaper as a large amount of black smoke took the creature before it could conduct Col onwards, so demons then.

And it's not just any demon it's Alastair who is still fuming about being sent back to our plain of existence. Arriving on the scene is Tessa, who was the Reaper Dean meet at the hospital back in season two episode one In My Time of Dying. Naturally Alistair nabs her as well and we learn that if he can sacrifice both Reapers the very same evening another seal will be broken on Lucifer's prison. Can ghost Dean and ghost Sam save Tessa and the other Reaper or will we be that much closer to Armageddon?

Finally we are back to the main story arc and the Winchesters are confronting their demons. While the episode deals directly with the rise of Lucifer, can he be stopped? - it also delves into both Dean and Sam and their decisions or perhaps the decisions being made about them. Tessa warns Dean that the Angels have their own agenda and his new found belief in their innate goodness might be slightly miss placed. Definitely food for thought, especially considering the Winchesters were tricked into going to Greybull by Castiel. Pam warns Sam that he is on the wrong path, no matter how good his intentions the outcome is not going to be righteous. Thankfully Sam's developing power, based on the consumption of demon blood, get's the boys out of the initial confrontation with Alastair, but as Pam points out there will come a time when Sam will need to pay the ferryman for his unholy consumption.

But the episode isn't content with leaving things there, Dean is confronted with a moral dilemma that for once Sam doesn't share. Dean points out that when they reboot death, i.e. get the Reapers happening again, a lot of good people are going to die, do the Winchesters have the moral right to make that choice? Sam argues that for everything there is a season, a natural order that they shouldn't mess with, ergo death must saddle up. Whether or not it's due to demon blood, Sam is sounding a lot more like the Dean of the first two seasons while Dean is adopting the Sam role of moral compass. For mine it's a shrewd demonstration of Sam becoming more cut throat, i.e. the consumption of evil is changing him for the worse while Dean's new found belief is bringing him closer to the light. Clearly the battle is at some stage going to be stopping Sam from going completely dark side and Dean from descending into a mire of chick moments.

Is Sam's consumption of demon blood any different to vampirism?

A few spoilers a head amigos, head down to the final paragraph if you haven't seen the episode.

Interestingly Pamela Barnes, who lost her sight helping the boys previously, reluctantly agrees to aid them again. Naturally this doesn't work out too well for her and she becomes another casualty of the Winchester war against the powers of darkness. While the Brothers might fit the role of heroes etc they sure do take a toll on those that aid them.

Castiel appears late in the episode as the Angels apparently capture Alastair, to inform Dean that it wasn't Bobby Singer who put him and his brother on the case. The Angels couldn't breach the demon's defences, all about the hieroglyphics on the building walls, so called in the Winchesters to sort out the situation. Dean doesn't take this particular well even though Castiel points out they have managed to save a seal this time. Clearly Dean at least is being manipulated by the Angels, Castiel keeps holding his rescue from hell over him, but to what purpose? Is it somehow ordained that the Winchesters will directly stop Lucifer from rising or is there another reason? Time will tell of course but it's actually quite masterful storytelling, Angels are normally presented as beings of pure good here they are shown as being devious with no love of the human race.

And that concludes the spoilers for today, please resume your reading if you didn't read the previous two paragraphs.

I just have to applaud the Supernatural crew for their representation of the Winchesters "spirit walk", for want of a better description, and raise a slight issue. When the Bros enter the other side everything changes to a washed out look, which is in keeping with their temporary new plain of existence, however the contrast isn't as good as it should be due to the sets in the "real" world being pretty drab and lacking primary colours. While rocking to the look and feel some more work should have been done in highlighting the contrast, it was perhaps a little too subtle.

Only one mullet rock track laid down this episode, George Highfill & Jai Josefs knocking out "Perfect Situation For A Fool", okay calling short changed there, the Producers really do need to work on their soundscape asap!

Yes I know the fanbois and gals will be leaping up and down regardless, but I was just pleased to be on track with the major plot arc again. After almost forgetting what the season was about it was good to have the Winchesters battling demons and working hard on stopping Lucifer from breaking free. I also really dug the highlighting of the change in the Bros attitudes and the warnings each received about what might be down the road. In essence trust nobody, supernatural or otherwise. Dean continues to dig away at the scab of Sam's deceit, in terms of the Ruby thing, and that's for sure going to explode in the not too distant future. All in all solid episode, yay for catching up with Tessa, boo for finishing off Pam. Worth a look folks but you really need to have been rocking out to at least the entirety of this season to get the various ramifications going down.